Top 10 Features in Easy-to-Use Space Planning Software

By Aleks Sheynkman
Director of Engineering
SpaceIQ

Like any enterprise application, space planning software should make your job easier. What’s the point of using a cumbersome platform that takes longer to click through than a series of spreadsheets? Easy-to-use space planning software must offer facilities managers the tools, features, and resources that make it the simplest solution to coordinating workspaces.

Here are 10 must-have, simple-and-seamless features in modern facility planning software:

1. Drag and drop floor plans: In the age of touchscreen devices, the best space planning software has drag and drop capabilities. Namely, interactive floor plans with drag and drop adjustments are a boon to facility managers. It should be easy to tap and drag desks, people, and assets within a floor plan to reposition them in an instant.
2. Robust software integration: The larger the business, the more complex the software ecosystem. Space planning software should seamlessly connect applications such as calendars, messaging apps, and specialty software. The more cooperative it is, the simpler it is to coordinate vital facility functions.
3. Mobile app integration: We live in a mobile world and technology on-the-go plays an important part. More and more, space planners are in the field and on the floor, working quickly to accommodate workplace needs. Mobile app integration allows facility managers to view, understand, and adapt facilities even when they’re not in front of a computer.
4. Metrics and reporting: A major part of modern facilities management involves data. Space planning software should produce key reports about metrics you’re tracking or stats indicative of space utilization. A big part of the convenience is not having to export datasets to spreadsheets and tally them yourself—the software should produce figures, charts, and graphs for you.
5. Sensor integration: The more of the workplace you can quantify, the better you’ll understand it. Look for space planning software that’s receptive to sensor integration, able to aggregate this data into meaningful insights. An open API or developer partnerships make it easy for sensors to digitize your physical workplace, so you can learn more about how it functions through a space planning platform.
6. Single sign on (SSO): The easiest space planning software features are some of the best, including SSO integration. Forget about the frustration of having to log on to a dozen different systems every day—SSO logs you into your Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS) and everything affiliated with it, quick as a flash!
7. Scenario planning: Rarely do workplace puzzles come together on the first try. Scenario planning is a cornerstone of space planning software that is easy to use. Being able to create floor plan variations, save, and access them later helps make space planning easier. Keep effective plans for future use, draw inspiration from scenarios that worked well, or keep poor examples on-file so you know not to repeat them.
8. Real-time views: The workplace functions in real-time and so should your management of it. Real-time views and actions within a space planning platform help coordinate agile facilities and their immediate needs. It’s the key to unlocking flexible workspaces, managing office moves, and keeping up on general facility maintenance. Real-time views keep pace with the speed of business—something static spreadsheets and CAD designs fail to do.
9. Automations: Digital facility management is on the rise, quickly building to facility automation. Space planning software with automation capabilities positions companies to succeed in efficient new ways. Automated support ticketing, room booking, desk reservations, and more make planning, delegating, and managing the workplace simpler. Automations also help facility managers focus on big-picture improvements, instead of small-scale tasks.
10. Tiered usership: Having a dozen users poking around in space planning software can create unnecessary chaos. Tiered usership grants access to those who need it, how they need it. The Finance Manager can generate facility cost reports. Human Resources can access employee seating information. Team Leads can manage their desk neighborhoods. Tiered usership gives people what they need on a need-to-know basis, without disrupting greater facility management efforts.

Not every facility management platform will include all of these features. The ones that do stand apart by offering unparalleled ease-of-use and intuitive function to facility managers. The more features, the easier the software is to use and the more benefits it can deliver to the workplace.

Keep reading: The Future Of Space Planning Software is Here.